1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to billiard ball racks used to orient billiard balls or pool balls at the beginning of a game of billiards or pool. More particularly, the present invention relates to billiard ball racks that include a mechanism that assists in the removal of the rack from the collection of balls, after the balls have been arranged in a desired orientation by the rack.
2. Prior Art Statement
There are many different types of games that can be played that fall generally under the category of "pool" or "billiards". In many of these games, the balls used in the game are positioned in a predetermined orientation at the beginning of the game. For example, in the version of pool commonly called eight-ball, fifteen pool balls are arranged in a triangular pattern with the eight-ball in the center of the triangle. In the version of pool commonly called nine-ball, nine balls are arranged in a diamond pattern with the nine-ball in the center. Traditionally, the balls are positioned in a desired orientation by the use of a rack. The rack is shaped to surround the periphery of the balls and cause them to lay in a desired orientation. As a result, when the proper number of balls are placed in the rack, the balls automatically conform to the shape of the rack. Once the desired sequence of balls in the rack is achieved, a player moves the rack to the proper position on the playing table and removes the rack. Assuming the playing table is not sloped, the balls remain in the shape of the rack until the balls are stuck by another ball during play.
The area defined by a rack is slightly larger than the area of the balls in the rack when properly oriented. The reason of the slight oversizing is to enable the balls to be easily placed into the rack and to promote the easy removal of the rack without disrupting the newly arranged balls. In billiards and pool it is desirable for the balls in a rack to be tightly packed so that all balls are in abutment when the rack is removed. As a result, a person placing the balls in a rack, typically pushes the balls into a closely packed arrangement just prior to removing the rack from around the balls. The problem with this traditional racking method is that as the balls are pushed against each other they are also pushed against at least one of the inside surfaces of the rack. Accordingly, some of the balls are in abutment with the rack as the rack is removed. Since some of the balls abut against the rack, it becomes very difficult to remove the rack without causing movement in the balls and adversely effecting the closely packed arrangement of the balls.
In the past there have been several devices invented that were intended to help a person rack pool balls or billiard balls. However, these prior art racks did little to help a remove the rack from a tightly packed arrangement of balls. Such prior art is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No.: 501,256 to Rohrbach, entitled TRIANGLE FOR BILLIARD BALLS, and U.S. Pat. No.: 1,089,140 to Madigan, entitled POOL OR OTHER GAME FRAME. In both of these references, the rack helps a person to form a tightly packed arrangement of balls, but no means is provided for the easy removal of the racks from around the tightly packed arrangement of balls.
Some racks were invented that contained features that provided assistance in removing the rack from around tightly packed balls. These racks typically included knobs or handles that helped a person grab hold of the rack. See for instance U.S. Pat. No.: 1,887,552 to Gunn, entitled SPOTTING RACK FOR POOL BALLS and U.S. Pat. No.: 1,260,540, to Hogue entitled, POOL BALL RACK AND BASKET. Although such racks help a person to engage and manipulate the rack, the effective removal of the rack from the tightly packed balls is still dependent upon the hand/eye coordination of the person moving the rack.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a billiard ball rack that has a mechanism thereon the assists a person in removing the rack from around a tightly packed arrangement of balls in a manner that is not dependent entirely upon hand/eye coordination skills.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved method or racking billiard balls and removing the rack from the newly arranged balls.